Improvement in breech-loading fire-arms



l. V. MEIGS. Breach-Loading Fire-Arms.

v Patented June 2,1874.

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NTED STATES PATENT Grrron.

JOE V. MEIGS, OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN BREECH-LOADING'FIRE-ARMS.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 151,496, dated June 2, 1874; application tiled May 16,1873.

To all 207mm it may concern.:

Be it known that I, JOE V. MEIGs, of Lowell, Massachusetts, have invented certain Im provements in Breech-Loading Fire-Arms, of which the following is a specification:

My invention more especially relates to sp orting tire-arms of the class in which the barrel swings horizontally on a pivot to open or close the breech.

The subject-matter claimed is hereinafter specified.

The accompanying drawings show all my improvements embodied in the best way now known to me. Obviously, however, some of said improvements may be used without the others. They may, likewise, readilybe adapted to guns of a construction differing from the one herein shown. The details of their construction, likewise, may be varied within. certain limits without departing` from the principle of my invention.

Figure l represents a plan view of the breech; Fig. 2, a side view, and Fig. 3 an end view thereof. Fig. 4 shows a plan view of a portion of the under side of the barrelsupport Fig. 5, an edge view, and Fig. 6 an end view thereof. Fig. 7 shows a side view, and Fig. 8 an end view of the extractor. Fig. 9 shows two forms of a iiring-pin, and Figs. 10 and 11 are detail views of the tiring-pin plug.

A breech-frame, A, is secured on a base-plate or strap, B. A curved ring-pin, c, is acted upon by a coiled spring, c', bearing against a lug on the pin, and working between it and the plug', and moves endwise in a correspondingly-curvcd slot in a plug, O, in the breech-frame A. The details of these devices are clearly shown in the drawings, and need no further description. Barrels D are secured upon a support or shoe, d, which slides upon the baseplate B. A Xed pin, e, on the barrel-support, projects through atransverse slot in the baseplate, (shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1,) to admit of a lateral sliding movement of the barrels. A button, c', on the pin e, bears upon a spring, E, on the base-plate. A suitable stop, or spring-catch, if desired, locks the barrels in position when the breech is either open or closed, though that is not necessary, as the spring E serves that purpose. An extractor,

F, slides longitudinally in a groove between the barrels, being actuated by a pin or hook on its end taking into a cam-groove, f, in the base-plate. (See Fig. l.) To open the breech the barrel is pressed laterally forabout threeeighths of an inch, thus compressing what is now the closing spring E, the pressure causing the button-pin c, which is xed to the barrel, and its shoe or support d, to move in its slot. The barrel is then swung round on the same pin c by the same pressure; but as soon as the barrel begins to turn upon its attached pin e, the button on e is thrown out of the par allel line of its lateral movement, and the spring E, which has a tendency to close the breech, now has a tendency, by the new position of the button, to open it and hold it open. As the barrel moves laterally the pin on the extractor plays in its slot without acting on the extractor', but as soon as the swinging movement ot' the barrel begins, the pin acts on the walls of the cam-slot, the extractor is projected, and the shells thrown out. A pinon the barrel support or shoe takes in to a notch on the base-plate, and, with the action of the spring E, locks thc barrels when closedagainst the breech-frame. When the barrel moves laterally this pin is disengaged from this notch. Vhen the barrel begins to turn upon its pivot the button on this pivot is so thrown out of line that the spring E bears in the direction of opening the barrel, an d swings it open fully, holding it against the stop-pin on the barrelshoe just above mentioned, thus securing a steadiness ofthe open gun while being loaded in whatever position it may be held, which will be appreciated at once by Sportsmen. This spring attachment for holding open, and for holding closed, the breech of the gun without other catch sets free one of the hands of the sportsman, and will enable him to make greater speed in loading and irin g.

It can be, obviously, applied to any form of side-breaking or break-down gun; and I do not confine myself to its application to this special gun, but it may be applied, as any gunsmith can readily see, to any gun of the classl above mentioned.

The barrel fixed in its shoe pivoted upon its fixed pivot in the shoe, working in the slot in the frame-plate, does not depend upon the pivot-pin button to hold it down7 but is held down by the-square cut under shoulder, (shown in the drawings, male and female, as upon the shoe or frame-plato 5) and as the barrel never leaves, this intercommunieation is iirmly and strongly held together-a point ot no ineonsiderable importance-and the shoulder (shown in the drawings) on the barrel-shoe, which goes under the corresponding noteh in the frameholding the tiring-pins, should not be overlooked in this specification.

I claim-v 1. A Curved lagged ring-pin ineased in a plug which is inserted in the frame of the gun, substantially as shown and described.

2. The combination of the laterally-slotted base-plate, the barrel first moving laterally parallel with its bore, and lthen swinging radially on a pin passing through said slot, and the holding-spring, these members operating in combination, substantially as set forth.

3. The combination, substantially as set forth, of the laterally-moving swinging barrel, and stop mechanism for holding it positively open or closed, substantially as shown.

4. The combination, with tilting or swinging barrels, of a spring,v operating substantially as set forth, to assist in opening and closing, and to hold the barrel in either the open or closed position, as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name.

JOE V. MEIGS. `Witnesses:

LAURIN MARTIN, WM. B. RwnAnnsoN. 

